The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-06-22
THEORIES OF EARTHQUAKES.
The Odd Reasons Given I'm Former Time,
for Commissions of Nature.

The Odd Reasons Given In Former Times
for Commissions of Nature.
Prof. Milne passed on to the myths
which attribute earthquakes to Great
ure living underground, says Nature,
describing lecture delivered in Japan.
In japan it is an earthquake insect
covered with scales, and having eight
legs. or a great fish having a certain
rock on his head which helped to keep
him quiet. In Mongolia the animal is
said to be frog, in India the world
bearing elephant, in the Celebes a
world-supporting hog, in North Amer
lea tortoise. In Liberia there was a
myth, connected with the great bones
found there, that these were the
remains of animals that lived under
ground, the trampling of which made
the ground shake. In Kamtchatka the
legend was connected with god, Tuil,
who went out hunting with his dogs.
When these latter stopped to scratch
themselves their movements produced
earthquakes. In scandinavian mythol-
ogy, Loki, having killed his brother
Baldwin, was bound to q rock face up
ward, so that the poison of serpent
should drop on his face. Loki's wife,
however, intercepted the poison in a
vessel, and it was only when she had to
go away to empty the dish that a few
drops reached him and caused him to
wrlthe and shake the earth.
The lecturer had no means of collect
ing the fables of the southern hemi.
sphere; but they would obviously be
worth knowing for purposes of COM
parison. AS to quasi scientific theories,
these endeavored to account for earth
quakes as part of the ordinary opera
tions of nature. 1t was supposed, for
instance, that they were produced by
the action of wind confined inside the
earth. The Chinese phi .losophers said
that Yang, the male element, entered
the earth and caused it to expand, and
to shake the ground in its efforts to
escape. It's effects would be more vio-
lent beneath the mountains than in the
plains, and, therefore, earth luakes in
the north of China, which was noun
famous, were said to be more violent
than those in the south. 1t was sup
posed that when the wind was blowing
strongly on the surface of the earth
there was calm beneath, and vice versa.
Aristotle and many other classical
writer's attributed earthquakes to wind
In the earth. Shakespeare in Henry
~" speaks of the teeming earth
being pinched and veXed with a
kind of collie by the imprisoned and un-
ruly wind within her womb. Then come
the theories of electrical discharges,
which were advocated In 100 by DIR.
Stukely, as we'll as 10y Percival and
Priestley. They are strongly held in
California at the present day, where it
was believed that the network of rails
protected the State against any danger
Gus accumulation of electr. city. But
Prof. Milne showed that the laying
down of rails in Japan had no such
effect. He thought the electric phe-
nomena which sometimes attended
earthquakes were their consequences,
not their causes. He had himself ex-
perimented with dynamite placed in
hole; an earth-plate was fixed about
thirty yards away from the dynamite,
and from it wire was carried some
distance to another earth-plate. When
the dynamite charge was exploded
there was certainly a current produced,
as was indicated by strong DETECTION
of q galvanometer needle at the end of
the wire. He attributed this to chem
ical action. When the ground was
shaken there was always greater or
less action by increase or decrease of
pressure in connection with the earth
Ylota